Rafael Nadal says tennis can't resume unless players from all countries can travel again

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal believes the ATP and WTA tours should not resume until players from all countries can travel again. The Spaniard said that playing conditions should be 100% safe and 100% fair to players from every part of the world, without which tournaments can't take place.

During his Zoom meeting with international media, Rafael Nadal said that he would not participate in the 2020 US Open if the tournament were being held today. However, he accepted that if the situation normalizes, the organizers can think of conducting some competitions this year.

We need to understand we are in an unprecedented situation: Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal prefers to wait until the world gets a vaccine for COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic has compelled ATP to suspend the tour until August. All tennis players are currently either in lockdown or in regional quarantine, doing their best to keep up their fitness.

Rafael Nadal himself gave his body some rest before re-starting his training sessions two weeks ago. Expressing his views over the grim situation surrounding the tennis world, the King of Clay said:

"We need to be clear. We need to be responsible, we need to be sending Instagram messages and we need to be a positive example for society.”

Nadal stressed on the fact that the world is suffering from an unexpected situation, which is why the organizers should not resume the season until things are back to normal.

“We need to understand that we are suffering an unprecedented situation and my feeling is we need to come back when all players from all countries of the world are able to travel under safe circumstances," he continued.

The Spaniard also pointed out the importance of being 'fair' and 'correct', and said that there should be no compromises when the decision to resume tennis is taken.

“If not, I would say in my personal opinion, we will come back, yes, and I will probably play, maybe yes, but my feeling will be we are not being 100 percent correct. I want to see my sport being 100 percent fair and correct, especially under these circumstances.”

We need to wait a little bit more: Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal could not showcase his magic on the clay courts this year

Rafael Nadal, who is a member of the ATP Players' Council, feels that there is no need to rush things and start organizing competitions at the moment. He described the importance that any tournament holds for all tennis players on the planet and stated:

“If we are not able to organize a tournament safe enough and fair enough, and when I say fair enough, every player from every single part of the world needs to have the chance to play the tournament, we can’t play tennis, that’s my feeling."

The 19-time Slam champion, who celebrated his 34th birthday yesterday, further said that the key is to find a medicine that would assure the players and fans that they are not doing anything to spread the virus. And given how far away we are from a COVID-19 vaccine, Nadal is unsure if there will be any proper tennis tourneys this year.

“We are in a worldwide sport…when you mix people from every single part of the world the complications are completely different, so I am a little bit worried about that. But I am positive and I hope to keep receiving positive news. I don’t know if we will play tennis in 2020. That does not really worry me too much, what worries me is to come back to normal life and comeback to the healthy life and healthy situation for most of the people."

When asked if he would participate in the US Open if the tournament were taking place right now, the 12-time French Open champion replied:

“If you asked me today if I want to travel today to New York to play a tennis tournament I would say, no, I will not. But in a couple of months…hopefully the situation is going to improve in the right way. I am confident they will make the right decisions in the right moments, that if the tournament is going to be played, it’s going to be played under extremely safe circumstances."

Rafael Nadal signed off by expressing his personal opinion that ATP should not conduct the US Open this year if the organizers cannot guarantee 100% safety of the players.